Influencer marketing happens when companies collaborate with content creators to promote their products or services through social media. Creators can help increase your brand’s visibility, get new followers, and even boost sales.

Sometimes, however, brands are stuck when finding creators and deciding which ones are suitable for their campaign. In this post we’ll discuss the things to look for in content creators when making that choice.

Before you begin

Before you begin searching for creators, you must plan your marketing campaign. It is important to review the following elements:

• The purpose of the campaign
• Your target audience
• Your budget
• The timeframe and any deadlines
• How do you keep track of your improvement

Doing your research now will provide you with an idea of what content creators seem like a good match and which ones aren’t. Therefore, take your time and plan it well.

What should you look for when looking at creators profiles

When you are evaluating creators for your collaborators, it is important to examine a range of other characteristics and metrics. Let’s take a look at some.

Category

What is the category of creators? It is the subject they post about, such as food, beauty, health, fashion, etc. It is important to locate a creator who is in a category relevant to your business.

If your business fits into a more specific niche, explore further and locate people who are in the same area. As an example, if your company is a vegan, sustainable beauty company, search for creators with an interest in the topic.

Follower count and its growth over time

How many followers an individual has isn’t definitive evidence of their profile being successful. Follower counts do impact a creator’s reach, as well as the cost they’ll charge for their services.  But followers can also be bought. Therefore, it’s equally crucial to examine how they’ve grown their followers over time.

Make use of influencer advertising software, or request their media kit to evaluate the growth of their followers. An organic growth rate will be constant even if it’s slow. If you observe abrupt dips and spikes, be on guard. These spikes could show that the creator bought bot followers.

Engagement rate

This illustrates how much an audience is able to enjoy content from creators. Engagement rate measures interactions with social media-related content. The concept is that, the more users enjoy the content, the more frequently they’ll engage with it. And if they are engaged with the content of a creator, they tend to be more interested in the brands that the creator promotes.

When you look at engagement rate, remember that it may differ based on several aspects:

• Social network
• Follower count 
• Content type
• Category

Thus, it is essential to examine a creator only against their direct counterparts. Do not compare engagement rates of TikTok creators and Twitch streamers, sports creators and dance creators, and so on.

Audience demographics and their authenticity

Always check the audience of a creator, too. You should ensure that their audience is aligned to the brand’s target audience.

Examine demographics such as gender, age, location, language and interest. Also, verify the authenticity of followers. Are there a large number of followers that may potentially be bots?

 

Voice, Values and POV

Examine the content of the creator. Does it reflect what your brand is all about?

It’s a negative point for the audience if creators and brands with nothing in common collaborate. The audience can see through this, and it quickly becomes obvious that the only link between the two of you is that you’re paying the creator to promote your brand.

The collaboration should be as authentic as it can be. So start by identifying creators who are aligned with your brand. Take into consideration:

• Mission and message (what you do, and what you want to communicate)
• Your values (think about things important to your brand)
• Aesthetic style (the visual look and feel)
• Tone and voice of the brand (your brand personality)

Find creators who share similar missions, values, styles and voices with your brand. This will help the collaboration come across as organic for followers.

Conclusion

Analyzing and analyzing creators does not need to be difficult. For success, it is important to design your goals and campaign in advance. Also, know what to be looking for in creators so that you can make an informed decision in selecting your collaborators.